the desk drawer effect in science

J's Blog

It's interesting observation that chimes with my own very limited experience. There is much larger number of things that can go wrong than can go right. All the experiments in our lab benefit from the experience of our senior scientific and RA staff. And then we almost always have several pilot phases. But even then, of course, the experiments don't always work. What's more the failures are often nearly as informative as the successes. Perhaps what we need is a Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis?